Movie Review: FEAR

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: January 27th, 2023 / 03:09 AM

Rating: R
Stars: Joseph Sikora, Andrew Bachelor, Annie Ilonzeh, Ruby Modine, Iddo Goldberg, Terrence Jenkins, Jessica Allain, Tip “Ti” Harris, Michele McCormick
Writers: Deon Taylor and John Ferry
Director: Deon Taylor
Distributor: Hidden Empire Film Group
Release Date: January 27, 2023

FEAR is one of those movies that arguably has a little too much happening. There are COVID tensions, myths, witch spells, books, religion, and a place that messes with people’s minds. Given all the plates that are spinning, director Deon Taylor and his co-writer John Ferry do a decent job of keeping things coherent.

We see what looks like footage from an old talk show, with Rick Kogan (as himself) interviewing horror novelist Rom Jennings (Joseph Sikora, of the Starz POWER franchise). Rom says he’s working on a new book about American mythology as it applies to people’s fear.

We soon find out that the footage is recent, since everybody suspects that researching the book is the real reason Rom has brought together his lover Bianca (Annie Ilonzeh), his literary agent Michael (Iddo Goldberg), and an assortment of their close friends (Andrew Bachelor, Ruby Modine, Terrence Jenkins, Jessica Allain, Tip “Ti” Harris) at the secluded Strawberry Lodge.

Rom’s stated purpose for this weekend outing is to celebrate Bianca’s birthday. In fact, everybody except Bianca knows Rom is supposed to propose to her, but has once again lost his nerve.

Then a news report comes over the lodge TV, which has very glitchy reception. There’s a deadly new airborne strain of something (the glitches make it impossible to hear exactly what) that has gotten into the atmosphere, and the CDC advises everyone to stay indoors. Besides the usually respiratory issues, symptoms of this new disease include paranoia and hallucinations.

The characters all promptly exhibit paranoia in wondering if anybody in their group is ill, and/or lied about taking the COVID tests they were all supposed to have before getting together.

Several people also start hallucinating, which again could be disease-related, the results of a bad bottle of wine, or something more sinister.

Genuinely examining American mythology as it applies to fear would be an enormous topic. FEAR doesn’t make much of a stab at encompassing it. Instead, it fits solidly within its horror subgenre, except that nobody can really call Strawberry Lodge a cabin in the woods – it’s an enormous hotel in the woods. But it is rustic, with an actual dial landline phone an even an old-fashioned phonograph record player, and looks as ominous as it should.

The performances are good and the production design is suitably spooky. The filmmakers never do much with having relatively few people in such a vast, mostly unoccupied building, but they’re not obligated to do so. Likewise, it seems like there’s dark comedy to be mined in somebody trying to work out if the paranoia is caused by a virus, by supernatural forces, or is just a knee-jerk reaction, but FEAR doesn’t go there, either. Instead, it follows a particular type of mythos that may be familiar to viewers.

FEAR has a glitch fairly early on: it’s hard to imagine that a group of indigenous American women, banded together against hated outsiders, would call themselves by a Spanish name, rather than something in their own language. This by itself isn’t a major issue, but it does indicate a lack of attention to detail.

Consequently, FEAR has an agreeably creepy ambience, but it seldom raises real scares. It’s horror comfort food that doesn’t address what it teases at the start, but still competently provides the basics.

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